Council Trims Budget, Avoids Vote

June 23, 1998|By BILL DALEY; Courant Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — Believing the city's $83.2 million budget for fiscal year 1998-99 needed only some fine- tuning -- enough to prevent an automatic referendum vote -- the Democratic majority on the common council voted Monday for a budget that is just $75,000 less than one approved a month ago.

This new $83.1 million budget would drop the tax rate increase for the 1998-99 fiscal year by one-tenth of a mill, meaning a tax rate of 24.4 mills rather than 24.5 mills approved last month. The current rate is 23.1 mills.

A mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. The owner of a house assessed at $100,000 would pay $2,440 in taxes for the coming fiscal year. That's an increase of $130 over the current rate, but $10 less than proposed under the budget approved last month.

Monday's 8-4 vote along party lines was triggered by a petition signed by 1,285 residents seeking a newer, lower budget.

V. James Russo, the petition circulator, said the council's decision to cut the budget one-tenth of a mill was an insult to all who signed the petition. While he ruled out mounting a second petition drive, Russo said at least one of the petition signers would likely start collecting petition signatures today to force the council to reconsider the budget again.

More than 60 residents turned out Monday night for the budget vote. Nearly all who spoke either were in favor of keeping the budget as it was or wanted to ensure that certain areas of the budget, particularly school spending, weren't cut.

Attorney Daniel Russo wondered if all who signed the petition really knew what they were doing.

Russo, among others, claimed a small group of individuals were ``extorting'' the general populace through the petition drive and questioned whether it was really fair to put city government through the uncertainty and added expense of a referendum process.

``Is it the right of these few people who have an agenda unrelated to this issue to hold the city hostage?'' Russo asked.

The reference to an unrelated agenda was a recurrent theme of a number of speakers, who believe the petition signers were protesting something other then the budget. They believe the real issue is relocation of Long Lane School to a spot near the Connecticut Valley Hospital neighborhood, a proposal broached by Mayor Dominique Thornton that was bitterly opposed by the group Residents Against Institutional Dumping.

It was clearly no coincidence when John Shaw, the school board chairman, decided to label those opposed to the budget as Resident Advocates for Irresponsible Decisions -- RAID.

V. James Russo accused Thornton of keeping dossiers on residents who signed the petition, particularly those affiliated with Residents Against Institutional Dumping. He compared city government to Germany of Hitler or Stalin's Russia.

``What's next?'' he asked. ``Ovens? AK-47's? Political prisoners?''

Russo gave council members several pages of proposed reductions to cut the budget by $1.1 million. He said his earlier call to reduce the budgetary increase to just 0.3 mill, which would have meant a $3 million whack to the budget, was a rhetorical device to force the council to look seriously at cutting.

Majority Leader Gerald Daley scoffed at that claim. He essentially said Russo couldn't find $3 million worth of fat to cut. Daley also questioned the methodology used by Russo to propose $1.1 million in cuts, saying at one point that Russo's recommendations didn't follow the way the city does its budgeting.

Daley said he supported the budget as it was, but agreed to cut the budget by one-tenth of a mill to block an automatic referendum vote.

Republicans voted against the cut, saying the budget was still too high and that too much ``fluff'' remained. GOP Councilman Francis T. Patnaude was angered the budget used money from the general sewer improvement fund, but Democrats said the city had every right to do so.